Caste, the scourge
of Hinduism, is so deeply entrenched in Indian society that it has not
left the adherents of Islam, Sikhism, Christianity and Buddhism-theoretically
egalitarian religions-unaffected. So firmly rooted is the cancer of
caste in the region that it survives and thrives in neighbouring Pakistan,
where over 95% of the population are Muslims, as this slim book tells
us.

Pirbhu Lal Satyani,
the author of the book, is a Pakistani Hindu social activist based in
Lahore, working among the Dalits in his country. Of Pakistan's roughly
3 million Hindu population, he says, over 75% are Dalits, belonging
to various castes, the most prominent being Meghwals, Odhs, Valmikis,
Kohlis and Bhils. They reside mainly in southern Punjab and Sindh. Satyani
provides startling details about the plight of the Dalits of Pakistan,
which appears to be no different from that of the Dalits of India.

In a speech in 1944,
Satyani writes, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, declared
that the Muslim League would protect the rights of the Dalits, and he
assured them of full security. Accordingly, Jogendra Nath Mondal, a
Dalit from East Bengal, was appointed as the leader of the Constituent
Assembly of Pakistan and the first Law Minister of the country. This
suggests, Satyani says, that Jinnah was genuine in his concern for the
Dalits of Pakistan. However, things began to change after Jinnah's death,
and in 1953 Mondal resigned from the Cabinet and migrated to India.
This was an indication of the growing intolerance towards minorities
in post-Jinnah Pakistan. Today, as Satyani shows, minorities lead a
bleak existence in Pakistan, the worst sufferers among them being the
country's Dalits.

Following the Partition
of India, Satyani says, most Hindus living in what is now Pakistan migrated
to India. The vast majority of those who stayed back in Pakistan were
Dalits. In the years after the Partition, he writes, there has been
a steady migration of Hindus to India, especially in the immediate aftermath
of the 1965 and 1971 wars between India and Pakistan. The destruction
of the Babri Masjid in India in 1992 and the ensuing massacre of Muslims
in different parts of India by Hindutva extremists, led to a heightening
of insecurity among the Pakistani Hindus, causing a sizeable number
of them to migrate to India. Most of these migrants were 'upper' caste
Hindus. Lacking money and resources, Dalits in Pakistan were unable
to make the same choice. In addition, Satyani writes, 'The Dalits are
so caught up with mere day-to-day survival issues that Hindu-Muslim
conflicts or Pakistan-India disputes are not as important for them as
they are for rich 'upper' caste Hindus'. To add to this probably is
the fact that life for Dalits in India is hardly better than in Pakistan.

Most Pakistani Dalits
work as landless agricultural labourers and sweepers, Satyani writes.
In rural areas their huts are located in separate settlements outside
the main village and they generally lack even basic amenities. Large
numbers of Dalits also lead a nomadic existence, traveling from village
to village in search of manual work. Many Dalits live in temporary structures
in the land of landlords for whom they work and they can be expelled
from their whenever the landlords wish, having no title to the land.
They generally earn a pittance and are often forced into free labour
by powerful 'upper' caste Hindu and Muslim feudal lords. Many Dalits
eke out a miserable existence as bonded labourers, being heavily indebted
to landlords and moneylenders. If they protest false cases are lodged
against them and the police does little or nothing to protect them.
Local administrative officers routinely harass them and even forcibly
take away their cattle and other such belongings. Land mafias in rural
Sindh often forcibly grab the land on which Dalits set up their huts.
In most places Dalits have no temples of their own. They have few places
where they can burn their dead, and many of these are illegally occupied
by local Muslims.

In schools in the
villages, Satyani tells us, Dalit students routinely face discrimination
and are not allowed to use utensils that are used by other students.
In schools Dalit students are often badly treated by Muslim teachers
and students. Despite being the poorest of the poor, they do not receive
any scholarships on the grounds that money for scholarships comes from
zakat funds and hence it is not permissible for non-Muslims to avail
of them. Further, owing to desperate poverty few Dalits can afford to
send their children for higher education, and, generally, children are
withdrawn from school at an early age to engage in manual work to help
supplement the family's meagre income. In many cases, Dalits do not
send their girls to school fearing that they might be kidnapped, raped
or forced to convert to Islam.

In towns and cities
Dalits generally live in the poorest parts, in squalid slums. There
are no organizations working among them for their welfare, and, lacking
a strong political leadership of their own, they are not able to effectively
assert their voice in demanding their rights from the state or from
the larger society, not even to protest in cases of human rights violations.
Many of them do not possess national identity cards, and so cannot access
various government developmental schemes. Government facilities for
religious minorities are almost monopolized by the country's more powerful
and organized Christian and 'upper' caste Hindu communities, leaving
the Dalits untouched.

Because of acute
poverty, rampant illiteracy and discrimination and the absence of a
Dalit movement as in India, Dalits in Pakistan have no political influence
at all, Satyani says. In many places, Dalits are not allowed to freely
vote for candidates of their own choice. They are often forced by powerful
'upper' caste Hindu and Muslim landlords to vote for particular candidates,
and if they are refused they are pressurized into leaving their homes
or are beaten up. The problem of Dalit political marginalisation is
complicated by the acute divisions among the Dalits, with various Dalit
castes practicing untouchability among themselves. For its part, the
Pakistani state, Satyani says, prefers to promote the economically and
socially more influential 'upper' caste Hindus as 'leaders' of the Hindus,
instead of trying to promote an alternate Dalit leadership. Thus, for
instance, in 2002, of the nine seats reserved for the Sindh provincial
assembly for religious minorities, seven were for Hindus and only one
for Dalits, while Dalits account for more than 70% of the Hindu population
of the province. The state's lack of commitment to helping the Dalits
is also evident from the fact that despite there being some 3,50,000
Dalits in southern Punjab (mainly in the Rahim Yar Khan and Bahawalpur
districts) there are no reserved seats for Dalits or Hindus in the provincial
assembly. All the seats reserved for minorities in the assembly for
minorities are occupied by Christians. Further, government affirmative
policies meant especially for Dalits have been done away with, Satyani
writes. While Jinnah had provided a 6% job quota for Dalits in some
government services, in 1998 the government of Nawaz Sharif, assisted
by some 'upper' caste Hindu and Christian leaders, changed the Dalit
quota to a general minorities' quota, thus effectively denying Dalits
assured access to government jobs.

Dalits, like other
minorities in Pakistan, Satyani tells us, are also victims of religious
discrimination, by both Muslims as well as 'upper' caste Hindus. Despite
the Hindus being a minority in Pakistan, 'upper' caste Hindus continue
to discriminate against the Dalits. Generally, Dalits are refused entry
into Hindu temples belonging to the 'upper' castes. 'Upper' caste Hindu
landlords and businessmen in Sindh, Satyani writes, show little concern
for the plight of the Dalits, and, instead, are often complicit, along
with Muslim feudal lords, in oppressing them. As in large parts of India,
in eateries in the rural areas of Sindh, owned both by 'upper' caste
Hindus as well Muslims, Dalits are forced to use separate utensils and
are expected to wash them themselves after use. When they visit hospitals
for treatment they are generally left unattended and, being considered
as untouchables, are not allowed to touch utensils meant for public
use there. Often, Dalit women are gang-raped, murdered or are forced
to convert to Islam, but no action is taken against the perpetrators
of these crimes. Besides this, due to discrimination by 'upper' caste
Hindus, many Dalits have converted to Islam and Christianity on their
own.

Satyani ends his
book with a list of recommendations for addressing the plight of Dalits
in his country. He suggests that the government of Pakistan should insist
that the question of Dalit human rights and amelioration of their pathetic
conditions be placed as part of the SAARC agenda. This, presumably,
would force all the SAARC member states, including India, to take the
issue of caste oppression seriously. He calls for the setting up of
a national commission in Pakistan to monitor the conditions of the country's
Dalits and to work for their welfare. Dalits, he says, should be given
reserved seats in the National and Provincial Assemblies in accordance
with their population as well as adequate representation in all government
services. In areas with a high Dalit population, councils should be
created by the state for development of the Dalits. All 'black laws'
against religious minorities should be repealed, Satyani advises, and
to improve relations between different religious communities the educational
curriculum should be revised and negative portrayals of non-Muslim communities
and their religions should be deleted. Landless labourers should be
granted titles to land; Hindu, including Dalit, employees should be
given holidays on the occasion of their festivals; Dalit communities
that do not have any cremation grounds of their own should be provided
with such facilities; Dalits should be given the right to use public
wells and taps and to live within the villages, instead, as of now,
outside them; and Hindu temples presently under the control of the Waqf
Department should be given back to the community. In schools with a
sizeable Hindu population, Hindu children should be provided facilities
to study their own religion instead of Islam.

Whether the state
authorities willing to accede to these demands, however, is another
question.

* * * * * * *

Pirbhu Lal Satyani
can be contacted on pirbhu_m@yahoo.com

Indian Dalit readers
could help Pirbhu Lal by sending him Dalit literature in English or
Urdu.